Botticelli,
Sandro, real name Alessandro di
Mariano Filipepi (1445-1510), one
of the leading painters of the
Florentine Renaissance. He
developed a highly personal style
characterized by elegant
execution, a sense of melancholy,
and a strong emphasis on line;
details in his paintings appear
as sumptuous still
lifes.

Botticelli
was born in Florence, the son of a tanner.
The name ("little barrel") by which he
became known was either the nickname of
his elder brother or the name of the
goldsmith to whom he was first
apprenticed. Later he was apprenticed to
Fra Filippo Lippi. He worked with the
painter and engraver Antonio del
Pollaiuolo, from whom he gained his sense
of line, and came under the infuence of
Andrea del Verrocchio.

By 1470,
Botticelli had his own workshop. He spent
almost all of his life working for the
great Florentine families, especially the
Medici family, for whom he painted
portraits, most notably the Giuliano de'
Medici (1475-1476, National Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C.). Adoration of the
Magi (1476-1477, Uffizi, Florence) was
painted on commission (though not for the
Medicis), and contains likenesses of the
Medici family. As part of the brilliant
intellectual and artistic circle at the
court of Lorenzo de' Medici, Botticelli
was influenced by its Christian
Neoplatonism, which sought to reconcile
Classical and Christian views. This
synthesis is expressed in Primavera (c.
1478) and Birth of Venus (after 1482), two
panels commissioned for Medici villas and
now in the Uffizi, probably Botticelli's
best-known works. While scholars have not
yet conclusively deciphered these
paintings, their slender elegant figures,
which form abstract linear patterns bathed
in soft golden light, may depict Venus as
a symbol of both pagan and Christian
love.

Botticelli
also painted religious subjects,
especially panels of the Madonna, such as
the Madonna of the Magnificat (1480s),
Madonna of the Pomegranate (1480s), and
Coronation of the Virgin (1490), all in
the Uffizi, and Madonna and Child with Two
Saints (1485, Staatliche Museen, Berlin).
Other religious works include St Sebastian
(1473-1474, Staatliche Museen) and a
fresco, St Augustine (1480, Ognissanti,
Florence). In 1481 Botticelli was one of
several artists chosen to go to Rome to
decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel
in the Vatican. There he executed The
Youth of Moses, the Punishment of the Sons
of Corah, and the Temptation of
Christ.

In the
1490s, when the Medici were expelled from
Florence and the Dominican monk Girolamo
Savonarola preached austerity and reform,
Botticelli experienced a religious crisis.
His subsequent works, such as the
Pietá (early 1490s, Museo Poldi
Pezzoli, Milan) and especially the Mystic
Nativity (1490s, National Gallery, London)
and Mystic Crucifixion (c. 1496, Fogg Art
Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts), reflect
an intense religious devotion. Botticelli
died in Florence on May 17,
1510.